Shadows of the Past, Return of the Girl
by Kurai no Kumo
Summary: Full Summary Inside. Years ago, Hinata went missing during a mission and three years later a girl claiming to be her has returned to the village. How will Naruto cope with her reappearance, after she told him her true feelings those three years ago?
1. Prologue: Disappearance

Shadows of the Past, Return of the Girl

Years ago, Hinata Hyuga went missing during a mission and was presumed dead. For the longest time, her loss was grieved by her family, teammates, and Naruto, whom she had finally gotten the courage to express her feelings to. As time went by, she was slowly forgotten by the village, and Naruto moved on with his life. It has been three years, and a girl claiming to be Hinata has returned to the village. What will happen to Naruto, when he sees that the girl that claimed to love him, has returned?

Chapter One: Disappearance

"Hinata-san, what is your location?" Kiba's voice rang out from a headset around her neck. Hinata was alone in the middle of a forest, the team had split up in search of a missing person that had been reported in the village, and a rival village had been suspected of an abduction. Several teams had been dispatched, including Team 8, each team searching a different area around the village.

"I'm near the river on the north side, have you found anything, Kiba-kun? Shino-kun?" She asked softly into the microphone. She stopped running briefly to catch her breath and await a reply from the other end of the three-way radio that she shared with her teammates. She wished that their leader, Kurenai, would have been with them, but all of the Jounin in the village had been dispatched themselves to search the farther reaches around the villages.

"Not yet. We should regroup and create a new search plan." Kiba said as he stopped dead in his tracks and remained silent. Akamaru was at his feet and began to growl. Both of them could smell the presence of other people within the area, three, no four of them, and they were all near Hinata.

"Hinata, watch out there are several people near you!" Kiba yelled into the microphone, hoping she would respond, but there was only static where her voice should have been. "Hinata?! Hinata?! Are you there?! Shino!" Kiba yelled into his microphone as he began to run to where Hinata's scent had been last. Within a few minutes, he and Akamaru arrived and saw Shino had arrived first, but Hinata was nowhere to be found, only her headset on the ground in pieces and a few small spots of blood leading away from the headset.

"Shino, did you see anyone?!" Kiba asked frantically.

"No, I just arrived myself." Shino said, his eyes fixed on the headset from behind his dark glasses. Kiba growled and punched the ground, upset at himself that he had let this happen, and to Hinata of all people. Shino watched his teammate and reached up to his headset, pushing a button and switching it to the main village channel.

"This is Aburame Shino of Team 8, we have lost a member, send the ANBU immediately" He spoke, a voice on the other end came across the radio, confirming the dispatch of the ANBU.

That evening, the entire Hyuga main house was called to the Hokage Tower, as well as Kiba, Shino and Kurenai. They were met by the Godaime, Tsunade and her attendant Shizune. The atmosphere around the building was grim, the main daughter of the Main House of the Hyuga Clan was missing and the Main House was in disarray at the news. There was a loud mass of chat and anger in the voices of the Hyuga elders and the leader himself waited patiently with anger in his eyes for the Hokage to speak. Tsunade was a little reluctant to speak, but she knew she had no choice in the matter.

"You all know why we are here, so I won't bother explaining. What I want to know is how this happened and what we can do to get Hinata back." Tsunade announced to the angry men and women before her. "From what the ANBU collected, we assume that Hinata was kidnapped and not merely killed, however we do not know who commited this act, or where they took her."

"Then what good does this meeting do us?!" One of the elder Hyuga men yelled from the crowd, spiking an uproar of commotion.

"We are still investigating the situation…" Shizune tried to speak to the group, but they did not hear her over their own voices, and the few who did hear merely became even more enraged.

"Enough!" Hiashi yelled from his position at the front of the group. "This senseless bickering will get us nowhere. We must return to the Main House and contemplate the situation at hand. It is possible that this is an attempt to steal the secret of the Byakugan, and if this is the case, it is likely that she is already dead."

Hiashi turned and began to walk back to the Hyuga family houses when he heard a voice yelling at him from the direction of the Hokage Tower.

"You are her father, how the hell can you be so uncaring about this?!" Kiba yelled as he took a few steps forward.

"You were the team leader for this were you not? How could you have let this happen to her? This is your fault and we now must accept the circumstances." Hiashi spoke coldly at Kiba, before turning once more and continued to walk home. Kiba was struck with guilt at his words, but he felt a hand on his shoulder and looked up at Tsunade who was now standing next to him.

"We will find her Kiba, even if it takes weeks, months or years. We will return her here alive. She knew this was a possibility when she first became a shinobi, don't blame yourself, it wont help us." Tsunade spoke before walking away from him and returning to the tower to have a meeting with the ANBU captains. Kurenai and Shino approached Kiba from the tower front where they had been standing.

"Lets go Kiba." Kurenai said as they began to walk home. Kiba stood in place for a moment before reluctantly walking to his home.


	2. Chapter One: Return of the Girl

Authors Note: Ok, so from the reviews I have noticed that people seem to think that this is a NaruHina fanfic. That is INCORRECT. This is a NaruSaku fanfic. While Hinata is playing a big role in this fanfic, she is not a pair-up and actually plays a big part between Naruto and Sakura later, but i will not leak any more detail than this! With that said, i present this:

Chapter One: Return of the Girl

It had been three whole years since the disappearance of Hyuga Hinata, and the Leaf Village had returned to its moderately peaceful ways. With the Akatsuki gone and Orochimaru long since dead, they had nothing to fear for the time being. However, the peace was short lived and bittersweet, for during the downtime, a few enemies of the village had time to grow stronger without their notice. Rival countries, who had wanted to take the Leaf Villages spot as one of the Five Great Shinobi Nations, had begun to conspire against them.

Several times these nations acted out against the Fire country and the Leaf village, some caravan attacks, kidnapping of high ranked government representatives and village elders, even some outright attacks against the Shinobi of the village, but all previous attempts were thwarted by the strength of the Leaf Village. Until one day when several of these smaller nations banded together and issued a challenge to the Godaime Hokage, Tsunade. The challenge stated only that "War is on the horizon, and the Leaf Village will burn."

Thus war was declared on the Leaf Village and life became hard once again for the Shinobi living there. All squads were immediately dispatched on various missions, some of the younger squads were sent as escorts for the supply caravans to and from the village to neighboring villages in the Fire Country, and more experienced and stronger squads were left to guard the village and ambushing the attacking forces. Team 7, the team consisting of Naruto Uzumaki, Sakura Haruno, Sai and Kakashi was one of the teams assigned for guarding the village. Such was their daily task, which Naruto began to grow weary of his assignment.

It was rainy that day; he stood in front of the villages memorial stone to the fallen Shinobi over the years. A second stone had been placed nearby, as the first stone had become full of the names of lost ones. Naruto stood in front of the newer stone and knelt down, running his fingers across two names who were engraved side by side across the stone. The first name was "Uchiha Sasuke", his fallen teammate who had been killed in a fight with his brother, which ended in death of the last two Uchiha. The other name read "Hyuga Hinata", a name he would never forget, for she was the only person to ever tell him that she loved him. However the motion was short lived, for she disappeared a day later on a mission and was never found. The village classified her as killed in action, but no one truly knew her fate.

"Good bye, you two. I got to go guard the village now…We are still at war…" Naruto spoke to the names on the stone as he stood and turned from the stone, wiping the water off his face and holding an umbrella above his head as he walked away from the memorial site, treading through the mud that had formed over the ground from the precipitation. His duties today were the same as everyday, guard the main gate and protect the villagers within the walls of the village. Instead of his usual black and orange outfit, today he wore his Chuunin vest and clothing similar to the other Chuunin and Jounin in the village. He wasn't sure why today, all of a sudden, he wanted to wear it, but he decided to anyway. It was his first time ever wearing his vest since receiving it after the Chuunin exam.

It seemed like a long trek through the Leaf village this particular morning, there was no life in the streets, everyone had taken shelter within their respective homes and some of the shops had closed since there was not going to be very many customers today it seemed. Within about ten minutes, he reached the main gate, and saw that his teammates had already arrived before him, even Kakashi

"Naruto, you're late." Kakashi said sternly. Naruto smirked at hearing this statement from Kakashi, usually it was the other way around, but he shook it off and looked at Kakashi seriously. "Sai and I are going to be on patrol today, so it's just you and Sakura in the hut on watch." Kakashi explained.

"Got it…" Naruto said half-heartedly as he turned and walked to the hut near the entrance of the gate. He remembered a time when he would have jumped at the chance to be alone with Sakura, but that was long ago, and his heart had become hardened after Sasuke and Hinata died. When he entered, Sakura was busy reading through a new book that she had just purchased, so she didn't notice at first. He sat down on one of the wooden chairs, his wet clothes spurting off water as he did so. When he was at the memorial, he hadn't bothered to keep the umbrella over top of himself and he ended up drenched by the rain.

"Naruto, you're soaked , did you go there again this morning? Honestly, you're getting to be like Kakashi-sensei…" Sakura scolded him.

"Sorry…I guess I forgot how bad the weather was…" Naruto said, looking at his feet as she talked to him. He had a lot on his mind recently with the war and all. Sakura watched him sit with a sad expression and sighed to herself. She quietly pulled out her bag and shuffled through it, pulling out a pink handkerchief and handed it to him.

"Here, at least dry off your face and hair." Sakura told him, giving him a warm smile to try and cheer him up some. He looked at her cheerful face and took the handkerchief. This made him a little happy, and took his mind off of Sasuke and Hinata as he wiped his face off. He briefly reminisced about back when all of them were Genin, fresh out the academy. He remembered that he had a huge crush on Sakura, he thought that he still did, but wasn't sure about himself or his feelings anymore. His goal in life was to be Hokage and to beat Sasuke, and all he cared about in the morning was the first bowl of ramen, not standing guard and protecting a bridge. Things were different for him back then, but those times were over, and he was not a naïve little kid anymore.

As he sat there with his head in the clouds, something in the distance caught his eye. From his position, it looked like the silhouette of a person walking towards them on the bridge. He stood up and leaned out of the hut, squinting to try and get a better look, but he still could not tell.

"Sakura…I think there is someone on the bridge…" Naruto said to the girl over his shoulder, not removing his eyes from the shadow in the mist ahead of him.

"Let me see. You're right, someone is out there, but why?" Sakura asked as she looked out into the mist as well to see the figure that was steadily headed towards them. "Naruto, we should go see." She told him as she slid her chair to the back wall of the hut and headed towards the door. Naruto nodded and followed her out of the hut, shutting the door behind him silently, he did not want to make a lot of noise, because they did not know who it was that was approaching them. Sakura, on the other hand, was not as cautious as he was about the situation.

"Hello? What are you doing out there?" Sakura yelled into the white cloud that covered the landscape outside the gate of the village. This figure continued to move toward them, and Naruto thought that he heard a voice, but didn't act on it. "Hello?" Sakura yelled once more, this time taking a few steps forward after doing so. They watched the figure for a minute longer, when they saw whoever was out on the bridge collapse in front of them. "Naruto, lets go!" Sakura said before rushing out onto the bridge to help the fallen traveler. Naruto followed Sakura out on the bridge, but when he arrived, his face grew pale when he saw who the traveler was. Sakura looked up to him, her face just as pale as his own. The fallen person looked exactly like Hinata Hyuga! Neither Naruto nor Sakura could believe their eyes, a girl that was thought to be dead was now unconscious before them.

"Sakura…this couldn't be…"Naruto gasped, taking a few steps backward in disbelief as Sakura knelt down to the girl. "That couldn't be Hinata, she's dead! It's impossible!" Naruto muttered to himself, watching Sakura as she checked the girl over. She had a few wounds and bruises on her arms and legs, from what they couldn't imagine.

"Naruto, help me get her to the hospital, we can figure this out later!" Sakura yelled, snapping him back into reality. He nodded and knelt down, picking the girl up with ease and quickly headed toward the hospital with Sakura running ahead to prepare the medical teams for their arrival.

Naruto paced the hallway outside of the hospital room where Sakura and the medical ninja were treating the girl. He could not believe that it was Hinata, for all these three years he had believed she was dead, and now she shows up bloodied, bruised and unconscious? He could not believe any of it, she had to be an imposter. Just then, Sakura exited the room alone, closing the door behind her and leaning against it. She let out a long drawn out sigh and slid down the door to a sitting position.

"Well?" Naruto was quick to ask. Sakura ran a hand through her hair and stood again. She turned away from him and began to walk towards the exit of the hospital, but Naruto quickly pursued her. "Sakura, answer me!" He demanded, following her footstep by footstep, staying in step with her.

"Go see for yourself…I need to go tell Tsunade-sama…" Sakura said with a disheartened voice. She was not acting like herself, she was acting as if she had just been defeated. Naruto didn't think twice about her and ran back to the hospital room, throwing the door open and barging in, scaring the med-nin as he did so.

He walked over to the bedside and looked down at the girl, she looked exactly like Hinata did, except her hair was a little longer and she looked older, which was to be expected after three years. The girl began to open her eyes, and Naruto leaned over her silently.

"Na…ruto…Kun…?" She asked weakly, reaching up with an IV-attached arm to touch his face. He grabbed her hand and held it, he knew now for a fact that this was Hinata, something inside told him it was, but at the same time, he had an intense feeling that something was amiss.

"Hinata…Hinata..where were you? I missed you! I missed you a lot!" Naruto said as he could feel tears welling up in his eyes and he fell to his knees next to the bed. He looked up at her once more, but she had fallen asleep again.

"Umm, sir. She needs her rest, you can stay, but please, let her sleep." One of the mednins spoke to him, trying to lead him to a chair in the corner of the room. He stood and allowed him to be lead to the chair, but he did not take his eyes off of her for an instant.

Outside the hospital, Sakura sat on the steps of the entryway and had her head in her hands. She was glad that Hinata had made it home safely, but she held a secret dear to her heart that made it painful to think about how worried Naruto had been about her. However she knew this was not the time to be thinking about herself, she needed to tell Tsunade everything that had happened, immediately.

She arrived at the tower in no time due to the short distance between the two buildings and entered, immediately passing the front desk and reaching the top floor, the Hokage's office, the office of her mentor, Tsunade. She politely knocked on the door and entered. "Tsunade-sama, I have something important to tell you.." Sakura said as she entered.

"Yes, Sakura, what is it?" Tsunade asked as she looked over her desk, and a large stack of papers, at the young girl.

"Well.." Sakura hesitated, but proceeded to explain everything that had happened. How Hinata had somehow returned from the dead, how she was battered and beaten, and how Naruto reacted afterward. She sadly recited the entire story, word for word, as Tsunade sat silently and listened, watching as Sakura squirmed in place as she explained, noting how uncomfortable she was as she talked.

"I see…That will be all, you may leave." Tsunade said, spinning in her chair to face the wall of windows behind her.

"But Tsunade-sama…" Sakura said, but cut herself off short, "Very well, I will be going then." She finished, exiting the room with haste. As soon as the door was shut, she leaned back against it and sighed, staring at her feet. So much had happened today, she was tired and could feel a headache beginning to form. She couldn't think, so she decided to go home for the day and try to get some rest, Tsunade would end up sending a replacement team anyway.

Back at the hospital, Naruto waited impatiently for Hinata to awaken, he had so much to say and ask that he kept going over it in his head several times. He watched her sleep peacefully, but was worried. 'Why did she disappear?', 'Where was she all this time?', 'Who took her?', are the questions he kept asking himself, until he noticed a movement from the bed, she was awakening.


End file.
